There is one particular reason that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex agreeing to return to the UK with Prince Harry might be a bitter pill for William and Kate, a commentator has claimed

The rift between the once-friendly four has never been deeper, a royal expert has claimed(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Meghan could be finally be poised to return to the UK, but her in-laws might not be too happy about it. It’s been years since the Duchess of Sussex stepped foot in Great Britain – with the last time she came back to her former home when the late Queen Elizabeth died.

While Prince Harry has come back to his home country a few times since then, including to attend his father King Charles’ coronation, Meghan has been decidedly absent, as have the couple’s two children: Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four. This could all be about to change, however, with reports claiming that the Sussex family are likely to finally have their police security reinstated, which would mean Harry feels much more comfortable about bringing them with him when he comes to visit.

It’s no secret that relations between Harry and Meghan and some of the other royals have been strained for some time – to say the least. William and Harry are understood to not be speaking at all, with the brothers even having some high-profile diary clashes last year, one of which saw them conduct engagements only miles apart.

Meghan and Kate are said to have fallen out in 2018(Image: PA)

But relations were turning frosty between the once-close brothers and their wives even before Harry and Meghan quit royal life and moved to California back in 2020. In his memoir, Spare, Harry divulged that frustrations were growing between the so-called ‘Fab Four’ around the time of his wedding to Meghan in 2018 – when his bride and sister-in-law had an argument over bridesmaids dresses.

One commentator has claimed that there is one particular reason that Meghan’s return now to the UK will be something of a “bitter pill” for Kate and William. Shane Watson, writing for the Sunday Times explained, “Of all the royals, William and Kate are the ones who will need to assume the brace position when the Sussex show rolls into town and, unfortunately for them, Meghan’s year has started with a mega boosting bang.

“Thanks to a technical glitch on the website of the duchess’s As Ever brand, shoppers were momentarily able to see how much of her product was left in stock, which then allowed some motivated sleuths to work out exactly how many boxes of her signature ‘fruit spread’ had been sold.” Meghan has, if the sums are accurate, made a whopping £26.7 million in jam sales – making it pretty clear that her fledgling business launched only a year ago, has been a resounding success with her fans and customers.

The commentator continued, “Meghan was not coming back to the UK as the dutiful wife of the Invictus Games founder. She was never stepping onto the tarmac at Heathrow as the Yoko of the royal family, somewhat chastened by the cancelled Spotify deal, the reduced Netflix deal and the alleged backlash in the US where Wills and Kate’s popularity polling outstrips theirs by some considerable amount.

Kate and William have yet to make up with Meghan and Harry(Image: Getty Images)

“She will happily return now because it will be as one of the Californian business elite, flying the flag of mindful wealth and success — all of which is going to make it even harder than it would have for the Waleses to swallow, and even more gripping to watch for the rest of us.”

An ill-thought out comment from Meghan about Kate’s “baby brain” back in 2018 is said to have also added to the strain between the two couples – though Harry detailed attempts to resolve the conflict the foursome tried in private. Harry wrote that during the meeting behind closed doors to resolve things, he could tell quite quickly that little progress was being made, writing: “None of this airing of grievances was doing us any good, I felt. We weren’t getting anywhere. Kate looked out into the garden, gripping the edges of the leather [seat] so tightly that her fingers were white, and said she was owed an apology”.

It appears that lingering tensions have never totally disappeared, if anything only intensifying after Meghan and Harry decided to start new lives in California. In their self-titled Netflix documentary about their love story, one scene which was filmed after their bombshell interview with Oprah aired back in 2021 saw Harry receive a text message, allegedly from William.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released a Netflix documentary in 2022(Image: Getty Images)

Though the contents of the message were not shown on camera, Harry swiftly looked devastated by whatever he had read. With the release of the tell-all Spare, which detailed much of the duke’s perspective on the internal family dysfunction and the competitiveness he perceived to have had with William since their childhoods, little seems to have improved.

Harry has even claimed that he left a lot of detail out of the memoir, because if he had included everything about his relationship with his elder brother, the future king would “never forgive” him. He said in 2023, “It could have been two books, put it that way. And the hard bit was taking things out.” The Duke added: “There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.”